And in April 2017 he said he was “the happiest and most comfortable I’ve ever been in my life”, telling eTalkcTV: “I’ve had time to put into a relationship, I’ve known her since I was 10, my parents know her parents, she lives around the corner - well we live together now, actually.”

“But I think if you ever enter into a long-term relationship and you have a doubt, then you shouldn’t be in the long-term relationship,” he went on.

“I actually always thought I’d end up dating like an actress or something, someone in the industry, but I don’t think I’m that kind of person. I’m a hometown boy.”

He added that the lyrics to Perfect came about after a boozy party he and Cherry went to at friend James Blunt’s house.

“We got really hammered and took our shoes off and danced on his lawn and then jumped in the pool,” he recalled.

“And then the next day I was like, ‘that’s a cool story,’ so I put it in a song.”

The lyrics to Perfect do indeed contain the lines, ‘I found a love for me / Darling just dive right in’ and ‘Baby, I’m dancing in the dark, with you between my arms / Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song’.

Cherry hit the headlines in 2017 when she was pictured on a rare night out with Ed at the BRIT Awards.

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Ever the gentleman, Ed was papped leaving the Ciroc Warner after-party in the early hours of the morning holding Cherry’s broken Louboutin boots in one hand and his now-fiancee with the other.

Both grinned as they left the boozy party - with Cherry having nicked Ed’s trainers off him to ease her discomfort, while Ed negotiated the London pavement in just his socks.

His engagement news rounded off a 2017 that saw him awarded an MBE at Buckingham Palace, a place at the top of Spotify’s most-streamed artists list - and, sadly, a broken arm that disrupted his world tour.

As yet, the happy couple haven’t announced any further wedding details.